MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Biden reaffirms US commitment not to let Russia beat Ukraine

“Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never,” Biden said

The day after his surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital, US President Joseph Biden insisted Tuesday in Warsaw that the western world would stand behind President Volodymyr Zelenski in fending off the Russian invaders.

“One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv,” Biden said after meeting NATO ally and Polish President Andrzej Duda, a vocal proponent of stronger Western support for Kyiv. “I can report: Kyiv stands strong, Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall, and, most important, it stands free,” he added after his unannounced trip to Ukraine, marking the first time that a US president made a journey to a warzone not controlled by US troops.

Poland has NATO’s longest border with Ukraine and has been the main route for weapons and for refugees. Hence the importance of Tuesday's talks as Putin was freezing Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms deal with Washington.

Earlier Tuesday, foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) said their countries would continue to impose economic sanctions and urged the international community to reject Moscow’s “brutal expansionism.”

“We will impose further economic costs on Russia, and on individuals and entities – inside and outside of Russia – that provide political or economic support to these violations of international law,” the leaders said in a joint statement.

In this scenario, Biden promised that support for Ukraine will not waver, and NATO will not be divided. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never,” Biden said. He added that the alliance was “more resolved than ever” in supplying munitions and humanitarian aid to non-NATO member Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia. “The West is not plotting to attack Russia as Putin said today,” Biden also underlined. “The democracies of the world have grown stronger [while] the autocracies of the world have grown weaker,” Biden also noted.

“They’ve committed depravity, crimes against humanity without shame or compunction,” Biden said about the Russian forces invading Ukraine. The US President specifically accused Russia of “targeting civilians with death,” using rape as “a weapon of war,” stealing Ukrainian children by forcibly removing them from their homeland, and launching airstrikes against train stations, maternity wards, hospitals, schools, and orphanages. “No one, no one can turn away their eyes from the atrocities Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. It’s abhorrent,” Biden underlined.

Biden also thanked Duda for the US-Poland ties, which are “critical” given the current state of things, while insisting on Washington’s commitment to the principle of collective defense in Article 5 of NATO whereby the alliance will respond if Russia expands its war beyond Ukraine.

On Monday Biden announced US$ 460 million in new military aid for Ukraine and said his administration will soon announce another new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia's war machine.”

Before returning to Washington on Wednesday, Biden was to meet with NATO leaders from the so-called Bucharest Nine (B-9), the countries on NATO’s easternmost flank, which include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. These countries feel most at risk from Russia and are pushing for a more robust military response against Moscow.

Biden’s unannounced visit to Kyiv took place on the eve of the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war, but it took months of preparations, it was reported. Those arrangements were in line with US Vice President Kamala Harris saying last week at the Munich Security Conference that “the United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity” and that Russia will be held accountable for war crimes in Ukraine. With no end to the war in sight, the when looks unfathomable but the how brings on some deja-vu if the US is to have it its way.